Lucid Motors designs to build just 9,000 electric vehicles in 2024, just 500 to 1,000 more than it built in 2023, as it struggles with demand for its luxury sedans. If it sticks to that number, that means Lucid will have finished building about 10 percent of the 90,000 EVs it predicted it could build and sell in 2024 when it went public three years ago.
The gap between the new figures and those initial expectations shows how much freedom companies like Lucid have had in pushing the reverse mergers that have helped so many go public. And it’s a sign of the stark reality Lucid now faces: that it’s still trying to find buyers and losing money on every EV it builds.
Clear was announced 2024 production targets on Wednesday along with its financial results for last year, where it shared that it lost $2.8 billion in 2023. The modest forecast comes days after the company slashed prices on the Air sedan by $8,000.
CEO Peter Rawlinson has spent much of the past year talking about how important it is for his company to improve its sales and marketing efforts, while also pointing to the upcoming Gravity SUV as a potential boost. The Gravity is one of the reasons Lucid originally predicted it could build and ship 90,000 vehicles in a few years. Yes, in presentation Lucid used to promote its 2021 merger with a special-purpose buyout firm, predicting that the Gravity would outsell the Air sedan in 2024.
The reality, however, was that Lucid faced a number of supply chain and production issues in the early days of Air, and by 2022 had to repel Gravity’s launch. The company finally revealed the SUV in November 2023 and says it plans to start building them by the end of this year.
Gravity means a lot for Lucid’s immediate future — so much so that the company announced Last week that he gave Rawlinson a $6 million cash bonus for revealing the SUV. Lucid is working on a mid-size platform intended to compete with Tesla’s Model Y, but that won’t happen until late 2026 at the earliest.
There are other things that could give the company a boost. It just recently started selling a rear-wheel-drive version of its base Air Pure model, which — with recent price cuts — now starts at $70,000. Rawlinson said Lucid faced technical challenges with early production of the Air Pure, but that it is now fully developed.
Lucid also announced last year that it was selling some of its EV technology to Aston Martin. Rawlinson said in a call Wednesday that Lucid continues to talk with other companies both inside and outside the auto industry to reach similar technology licensing and supply agreements. He even said that Lucid is “seeing interest in our technology for use in hybrid electric vehicles.”
Saudi Arabia, which owns the majority of Lucid Motors through its Public Investment Fund, has also agreed to buy up to 100,000 electric vehicles from Lucid over the next decade. The company began shipping Air sedans to the Kingdom late last year, though Rawlinson said Lucid initially faced “different market dynamics and complexities unique to this market” that slowed the initial rollout. But Lucid said “expect[s] Good development in The area This year.”
This story has been updated with details from Lucid Motors’ investor call.
